This invention relates to a portable, cordless wet/dry vacuum cleaner and to a recharging base for the vacuum cleaner.
Generally, portable, cordless vacuum cleaners have, in recent years, come into widespread use for cleaning a variety of surfaces, such as localized areas of a kitchen floor, shelves, automobile interiors, small areas of carpet, or other hard-to-reach places. These cordless vacuum cleaners are portable and are relatively lightweight and small in size such that the user can readily utilize them in hard-to-reach places where a large canister, upright, or shop-type vacuum cleaner could not readily be utilized. Typically, these cordless portable vacuum cleaners are utilized for small clean-up jobs. Examples of such cordless, portable vacuum cleaners may be seen by referring to prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,011,624 and 4,209,875.
While such prior art portable cordless vacuum cleaners worked well for their intended purposes, they were, for the most part, only useful in picking up dry debris, such as dust or particulate matter. These prior cordless portable vacuum cleaners were not intended to clean up liquid spills. Certain of these prior art cordless vacuum cleaner designs utilized filters which could come into direct contact with a liquid sucked up by the vacuum cleaner, such that the filter pad would absorb and retain moisture. In other prior art portable vacuum cleaner designs, the motor would be exposed to any liquid picked up by the vacuum cleaner.
Such cordless portable vacuum cleaners typically use a rechargable battery pack carried within the vacuum cleaner housing. As is conventional, a battery charger is typically provided with the cordless vacuum cleaner which may be plugged into a conventional wall socket for drawing 110-volt AC current therefrom, for stepping the current down to an appropriate voltage level, and for converting the alternating current to direct current. In this regard, any number of conventional battery chargers well known in the art may be utilized, with the particular battery charger depending on the characteristics of the rechargable battery pack.
It has been recognized that it is generally desirable that the vacuum cleaner itself not have any cord extending therefrom for recharging purposes, inasmuch as the cord would have to be carried with the vacuum cleaner during conventional use. It has also been recognized that a combination battery recharging base and holder can be utilized for the dual purposes of storing the vacuum cleaner at a convenient horizontal or vertical position and, at the same time, simultaneously effecting the charging of the battery pack within the vacuum cleaner. These prior art cordless appliances (whether vacuum cleaners or otherwise) and recharging bases typically utilize the recharging electrical terminals for the dual purpose of recharging and positively holding the vacuum cleaner or other appliance in place on the recharging base. Reference may be made to prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,225,814, showing a cordless vacuum cleaner storing and recharging system. While this system worked well for its intended purposes, it required two spaced-apart male terminals which extended outwardly from the recharging base such that a receptacle on the cordless vacuum cleaner must be brought into register with these spaced terminals. In addition, the base was required to be somewhat longer than the entire length of the vacuum cleaner because a pocket was formed in the end of the recharging base which received the forward or nozzle end of the vacuum cleaner. A resilient spring was provided at the opposite end of the vacuum cleaner for retaining the vacuum cleaner on the base with its nose or forward end received by the pocket in the base and with a receptacle on the vacuum cleaner receiving the spaced-apart terminals. It will thus be noted that in order to install the vacuum cleaner in its base, in the manner shown in the above-mentioned 4,225,814 patent, it is first necessary to insert the nose of the vacuum cleaner into the pocket, to align the two terminals with the receptacle, and then to engage the handle with the spring retainer. In other words, installing the vacuum cleaner on the recharging base is a three-step procedure. It will also be noted that the electrical recharging terminals project upwardly from the surface of the recharging base and are thus susceptible to damage.